Microsoft have "applied a compatibility hold" to – i.e., blocked the installation of – a new Windows 11 update that’s causing havoc with certain Ubisoft games. Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are among the weirdly publisher-specific victims of Windows 11 version 24H2, which by Microsoft’s admission (well spotted, Bleeping Computer) is causing crashes and crap performance in the affected games. Even after, in Outlaws’ case, Ubisoft responded to the complaints with their own patch.
]]>The final Asus ROG Ally details slipped into place today, as Asus confirmed the price and June 13th release date of its Steam Deck-bothering handheld Windows gaming PC. And it’s honestly not as expensive as I was expecting, given the premium positioning of ROG-branded monitors and keyboards: £699 in the UK and $699 in the US. That’s more than the topmost Steam Deck model, but the ROG Ally is promising generally higher specs.
]]>This is it, folks. We’ve squeezed thermal paste together, seated graphics cards together, and tidied cables together, so now all that’s left to finish building your own gaming PC together is to install Windows on the SSD or hard drive.
]]>Remember DirectStorage? Back in the not-exactly-halycon days of 2020, Microsoft revealed that the storage API would make its way to PC, having showed how it could slash loading times to bits on the Xbox Series X and S. A year and a half later, it’s finally ready for Windows, as Microsoft have made the full DirectStorage API available to developers.
]]>Windows has contributed two iconic images to the public consciousness: the default Windows XP wallpaper; and the blue screen of death. But they cut Bliss decades ago, and Windows 11 put the final nail in the coffin of Windows' pop culture relevancy by turning the blue screen of death into a black screen of death. A tragedy. Thankfully, Microsoft have now seen the cerulean light, and are planning to restore the azure annihilator in a future patch.
]]>Windows 11 may not be an essential upgrade yet, but its Auto HDR feature is mightily impressive: in games that don’t support HDR (high dynamic range) natively, it can apply similar brightness-boosting, colour-emboldening effects. There’s no performance loss, so if you’ve going to upgrade to Windows 11 on your gaming rig, it’s worth giving Auto HDR a try – and this guide will show you how to enable it.
]]>Change isn’t for everyone: just ask the 5% of Steam Hardware Survey respondents still using Windows 7. Sadly, even the most eager of early adopters might be looking to find out how to uninstall Windows 11, the very latest of Microsoft’s operating systems. It could be the newly centralised Start menu; it could be the lack of DirectStorage support among games making the best SSDs perform below their full capability; it could just be a single unsquished bug, which remains a risk with the infant OS. Fortunately, if you decide to want to switch back to Windows 10 within 10 days of installing its successor, it’s possible to roll back in just a few, mildly regretful clicks.
]]>Alright, fine, here’s how to upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10. The current stance of this hardware ed is that Windows 11 has some cool features but is yet to fulfil its potential, largely owing to the missing DirectStorage capability – which, to be fair, could be a very big deal when games start supporting it. For now, then, it’s a free but absolutely not an essential upgrade, and you can think of this post as the RPS equivalent of that video where Valve tore down a Steam Deck: we’re not saying you should do this, just that you can do this.
]]>The problems keep coming for Windows 11. Besides missing gaming features and a vote of no confidence by cloud PC providers, perhaps the worst of it has been a bug that drastically increases L3 cache latency on most AMD chips. That includes some of the best CPUs for gaming, like the Ryzen 5 5600X, and while both AMD and Microsoft have promised fixes, an unrelated Windows 11 update appears to have made the problem even worse.
]]>Windows 11 has been out for little under a week, which has proven more than enough time enough time for the bugs to crawl out. Memory leaks, laggy window animations and, most egregiously, major performance issues on AMD Ryzen CPUs have all been reported. All in all, a rather disappointing start, especially given this was pitched as Microsoft most gaming-friendly OS yet.
]]>Microsoft’s chief product officer Panos Panay once said “If you’re a gamer, Windows 11 was made for you.” Unfortunately, a couple of days after launching, it’s turning out to be something of an unwanted gift. Besides being blamed for Far Cry 6 crashes and deterring an entire cloud gaming service, Windows 11 is now causing performance drops on AMD chips as well. That’s according to AMD themselves, who announced in a support post that updating to Windows 11 could cause a 3-5% performance drop in some applications as well as a 10-15% drop in “games commonly used for esports.”
]]>Windows 11 is now out and about, gradually making its way to Windows 10 users as an optional free update. Sadly, Microsoft’s latest operating system isn’t have the most auspicious of starts: besides headline gaming features like DirectStorage not technically being usable yet, cloud gaming platform Shadow is actively discouraging users from updating their systems.
]]>Microsoft have put their PC Health Check app back online. The simple tool is designed to tell you whether Windows 11 is compatible with your computer, but it was pulled offline back in June when it kept telling people with modern PCs that they couldn't run the new operating system, with little information as to why not. It's more recently been available to members of the Windows Insider program, but it's back now for all.
]]>Microsoft today announced plans to launch Windows 11 on October 5th, inviting us to a world of exciting new features like rounded corners and a new default desktop wallpaper. As new named versions of Windows goes, 11 seems a smaller upgrade than from, say, Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, or from Window 8 to straight-up not owning a PC at all. Still, it has a few handy features for gaming. And it will roll out as a free upgrade from 10, if you want it.
]]>Windows 11 promises a few neat bonuses for PC gaming, like native support for previously Android-only games and an AutoHDR feature that could even make up for the famously wonky HDR support on Windows 10. Still, it would be nice to try Windows 11 without needing to install the entire preview build.
That’s the idea behind Windows 11 in React, an entirely browser-based demo of the Windows 11 desktop. Built by solo developer Blue Edge, it’s a very limited look at the upcoming OS – you can’t try out those gaming features, for one thing – but if you’ve been eyeing the software, unsure as to whether you’ll get along with the redesigned UI, this is as handy a tool as any for giving the interface a spin.
]]>Windows is full of phone-based surprises, lately. For example, Windows 11 natively supports Android apps. It also turns out both Windows 10 and Windows 11 can be installed on phones with ARM and Snapdragon chipsets. And we're not talking about the old Windows Phone OS, either. This is proper, desktop Windows. That’s a route that eventually leads down a certain path. A question asked of all PCs since the mid-2000s, and now one we must ask of modern phones: “But can it run Crysis?”
The answer the OnePlus 6T cockily spits back is, “A bit.”
]]>Windows 11 is still in the workshop as engineers tinker with its rounded corners and Android app support, but if you're a Windows Insider, you can give the preview build a whirl right now.
]]>The surprise announcement last week that Windows 11 would support Android apps was tempered by fact that Microsoft is using the Amazon app store to deliver them. Thankfully, you won’t be tied to the Amazon store. A Microsoft engineer has confirmed that you can ‘sideload’ apps in Windows 11, meaning you can install games and more from anywhere.
]]>Microsoft unveiled Windows 11 this evening, and people can already download their PC Health Check up to see if their PC meets the new OS' minimum hardware requirements to qualify for its free ugprade. However, a lot of users with relatively new PCs (myself incldued) are coming up with big angry red crosses when running the app, saying, "Nope, sorry pal, your 10th Gen Intel CPU, Z590 motherboard and RTX 3070 Ti just aren't good enough." Which is bonkers, obviously.
Turns out, it's probably not a problem with your hardware at all. It's because of your motherboard's BIOS settings.
]]>Microsoft has officially unveiled Windows 11, their brand-new OS for PC, and the good news is that it will be a free upgrade for all Windows 10 users - much like how Windows 10 was for Windows 7 and 8 users. Today's Windows 11 event confirmed a lot of what we already knew about the operating system from previous leaks - the rounded corners, centralised app icons, and a revised Start menu - but now we know when it's coming out, its minimum hardware requirements and more. Here's everything you need to know.
]]>Microsoft are hosting a livestream this afternoon that will officially unveil Windows 11, the next operating system in a line of operating systems named after an opening that lets in a passage of light, air, and flies.
]]>Windows 11 has leaked online, giving us a first glimpse of Microsoft's next operating system and all the small ways it'll annoy and unsettle us until we finally Google how to change it back. This time around: it has rounded corners, the app icons are centered in the task bar, and the Start menu has changed.
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